Hard Disk Monitoring

Hi,

if I choose to reinitialize only certain blocks of the HDD, does it destroy only the contents of those blocks so that the drive is still available via Windows Explorer and the rest of the data can be accessed? I'm asking this because one drive of mine has some weak sectors which seem to cover just one file which I can easily replace by re-encoding one blu-ray (I'm using the drive as a "scratch drive" for my video stuff).

Yes of course: I can confirm that if you select (with the Limit testing to specific data blocks - and configuring first / last block to be tested) to limit the test to specific blocks, then only those ones will be affected. For example if you use the reinitialise test, only those blocks will be reinitialised.
However, as each blocks can contain 10000's of data sectors (or even more), if the block contains metadata (for example folder information, MFT fragment and so) that may be also affected, so it is possible that other files/folders may be tested (reinitialised), not only the one file.

A new function is under construction to specifically repair certain sectors when required (especially useful when there are only minor problems, eg. some weak sectors present). This will be available in a later version (probably 5.00).

hdsentinel wrote:However, as each blocks can contain 10000's of data sectors (or even more), if the block contains metadata (for example folder information, MFT fragment and so) that may be also affected, so it is possible that other files/folders may be tested (reinitialised), not only the one file.

Does the "show filename" option cover those special cases or is it strictly restricted to showing only the name of the file actually existing in that location?

That function designed exactly to detect which file is located on the problematic / weak sector: so it shows the file name and actual position of the problem.

It does not check the other 10000's of sectors in the same block. If it's a big file and not fragmented, then it is possible that the single file uses the whole block (so overwriting / reinitialise of that block affects only that file), but if the file is small and/or fragmented, then the block may contain references for other files/folders.

When you use that option, complete file information displayed with sector positions of the file fragments on the disk (with start / end sector numbers).
And on the surface map, when you move the mouse pointer over the block, the sector positions of that block also displayed.
From these, you can verify if the block is completely "inside" the file or not.

>>"show filename" option

Probably I miss something. Where is located such option in the current version 4.x. I could not find it.
Thanks

It is in the latest beta version, as this function is under testing.

Please download http://www.hdsentinel.com/beta4/hdsenti ... _4609e.zip
and in that, you may notice the new options:

- new function: determine file stored in any sector, useful to get information about possible damaged files on unreadable sectors.
(works on NTFS/FAT32/FAT16/FAT12 volumes, hard disks, SSDs, removable drives, pendrives, memory cards)
Disk menu -> Surface test -> View -> Click on a sector to view the sector contents and then on the bottom click on "Detect file information for sector"

- new option: automatically detect and report all possible damaged files at the end of the complete surface scan.
To enable, select Disk menu -> Surface test and in the new window, select Configuration tab.
On the bottom, there is a new option: Detect file information for sectors with errors

See www.facebook.com/HDSentinel or http://www.twitter.com/HDSentinel pages to be informed about possible updates in beta versions.

Thanks. Probably, it will not be too long to have the feature in a final version then. I am always a bit scared to use betas.